The following items are quotes from Nonaka and Takeuchi, the Knowledge Creating Company,
mainly from Chapter 8, some from Chapter
5. They are a useful check to ensure our strategies are on the correct track
1. Create a
knowledge vision
Top management should create a knowledge vision and
communicate it within the organization.
A knowledge vision should define the “field” or
“domain” that gives corporate members a mental map of the world they live in
and provides a general direction regarding what kind of knowledge they ought to
seek to create.
The essence of strategy lies in the developing the
organizational capability to acquire, create, accumulate and exploit the
knowledge domain.
For example, … Kao defines its knowledge domain as
“surface science” … NEC includes pattern recognition and image processing as
part of its core technologies …
Without a vision, knowledge may be based solely on
past experience, particularly successful ones …. it becomes difficult to turn
to something new or different
2. Develop a
knowledge crew
Highly subjective insights, intuitions and hunches are
at the root of knowledge creation.
…. A knowledge creating company needs diversity in the
pool of talents … requisite variety … is one of the enabling conditions.
… ensure that the diverse pool of talents …. Maintain
their freedom and autonomy
… three categories of knowledge crew … knowledge
practitioners, knowledge engineers, knowledge officers
… knowledge engineers take the lead in converting
knowledge, ….and facilitating … across different organizational level … they
are the project leaders of the organizational knowledge creation process
Knowledge practitioners are responsible for
accumulating and generating both tacit and explicit knowledge … most of them
work at the front lines of business
Knowledge officers are responsible for managing the
total organizational knowledge-creation process at the corporate level… are top
or senior managers … (1) articulating grand concepts … (2) establishing a
knowledge vision … (3) setting standards for justifying the value of knowledge
…
Crew members should be evaluated in terms of how many
new endeavors have been attempted.
3. Build a high
density field of interaction at the front line
A high density field refers to an environment in which
frequent and intensive reactions among crew members take place.
…. Our theory on knowledge creation is anchored to the
very important assumption that human knowledge is created and expanded through
the social interaction between tacit and explicit knowledge … our hunches,
perceptions, mental models, beliefs, and experiences are converted to something
that can be communicated and transmitted in formal and systematic language
Crew members, especially those at the front line,
carry out … a dialogue with the market … knowledge is embedded in the market
4. Piggy back on
new product development process
… the new product development process happens to be
the core process for creating new organizational knowledge
To manage the new-product development process
companies must …
First, maintain a highly adaptive and flexible
approach … recognize that product development seldom proceeds in a linear and
static manner. It involves an iterative, dynamic and continuous process of
trial and error
Second .. make sure that a self-organizing project
team is overseeing the new-product development process … give autonomy to the
project team … tolerate fluctuation and creative chaos
Third … encourage the participation on non-experts …
which adds requisite variety
5. Adopt
middle-up-down management
Top management articulates … dream … front-line
employees … look at reality … Middle managers … synthesize the tacit knowledge
of both … make it explicit and incorporate it into new technologies, products
and programs.
6. Switch to a
hypertext organization
A hierarchy is the most efficient structure for the
acquisition, accumulation and exploitation of knowledge, while a task force is
the most effective structure for the creation of new knowledge. Recategorizing
and recontextualizing … knowledge … necessitates the establishment of a third
layer we called the knowledge base… The knowledge base layer … focuses on
storing and reinterpreting both tacit and explicit knowledge
(The knowledge base) … does not exist as an actual
organisational entity, but is embedded in corporate vision, organizational
culture, or technology.
… a hypertext organization … accommodates all three
layers
Although it is not easy, a switch to a hypertext
organization is necessary … First, it makes the life of crew members a lot
easier, because they only have to be in one layer at a time… Second, the
quality of the knowledge tapped by the organization increases, since a
specialization of sorts takes place.
7. Construct a
knowledge network with the outside world
Crew members have to mobilize the tacit knowledge held
by … outside stakeholders through social interactions… Most customers’ needs
are tacit …
NEC … Customer ranging from high school students to
professional computer enthusiasts … shared their experience of using the TK-80.
Leading apparel companies in Japan … send their own sales force to the selling
floors of major department stores … Sharp .. established two “customer boards”
… in its new product development process.
Generally, it's a good idea to drive knowledge management by "knowledge pull".
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